Shabana Mahmood

I thank the Chair and the Home Affairs Committee for their work in this area. I will be responding officially to their recent report on settlement. She will know that I have waited until this policy was settled, but I will set out the Government’s full response to the Committee’s very good work in this area, for which I thank it. The right hon. Lady is absolutely right about the need to make sure that domestic workers can access the skills they need to get jobs that are available in this country. She will know that I am flanked by many members of the Government, including the Secretary of State for Education, who is very alive to the issues of skills and training, as are my colleagues in the Department for Work and Pensions and elsewhere. That will be an important piece of work, especially in the care sector where the Government have already recognised that there is a need for an improvement in pay and conditions for care workers, with our fair pay agreement expected by 2028; that is a recognition that things need to change in that sector to make it more attractive to domestic workers as well. So let me assure the right hon. Lady on that point. The changes that have been announced will begin to be laid from the December immigration rules. They will be implemented over the course of 2027. I will be providing impact assessments and other detailed guidance as the changes are rolled out.